Kantara Initiative Launches Interoperability Program to Certify Technology Interoperability Across Various Identity-Protocols

Kantara Initiative, Piscataway, NJ – April 26, 2010 – Kantara Initiative, the global identity consortium promoting technical interoperability and harmonization to grow trust in Identity and Identity Access Management standards, products, and service deployments, today announced the launch of the Kantara Initiative Interoperability Program. Expanding on the highly successful Liberty Interoperable™ Program, the Kantara Initiative Interoperability Test Program is designed to certify interoperability of products and technologies across multiple identity-related protocols and standards, including SAML 2.0, InfoCard, OpenID, ID-WSF and elements of the WS-* stack (WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-Federation).
The Kantara Initiative Interoperability Test Program is supported by an Interoperability Review Board (IRB) and an Interoperability Work Group (IOPWG).
The IRB manages the high-level operating logistics, policies and procedures of the Interoperability Test Program. The IRB is composed of public and private sector experts in different protocols, Web services, standards development organizations and government policy development. “Our agile testing and certification program will help effectively accelerate adoption of new technologies and standards,” said Joni Brennan, Kantara Initiative Interoperability Program Director. For more information on the IRB visit: http://bit.ly/Cert_IRB
The IOPWG supports the Interoperability Test Program through the development of test procedures for the IRB target protocols. The IOPWG provides expertise and technical support to the IRB to help resolve conflicts of protocol interpretation that may arise among test participants during any given Kantara Initiative Interoperability Test Program event. The IOPWG is open for participation. For more information on the IOPWG, their mail list and how to join visit: http://bit.ly/IOP_WG
Full and updated details for the Kantara Initiative Interoperability Program including the targeted schedule of events is available here: http://bit.ly/Interop_Prog
About Kantara Initiative
Kantara Initiative is a global, open, public-private, technology-agnostic forum comprised of identity ecosystem stakeholders. Co-founded by Liberty Alliance, Internet Society, and Information Card Foundation, among others, its inspired mission is to promote technical interoperability and harmonization; to develop policy frameworks for operational interoperability and; to provide certification and assessment programs to grow trust in the standards, products, and service deployments. Kantara Initiative provides governance and resources for collaboration on a diverse portfolio of common policy frameworks, technical specifications and deployment guidelines driven by the identity community, industry and governments from around the world. For more information, visit http://www.kantarainitiative.org.